


Half An Inch

by WardenRoot



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22624156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WardenRoot/pseuds/WardenRoot
Summary: Five times Dinah teases Laurel about her height and one time Laurel beats her to it.
Relationships: Dinah Drake/Earth-2 Laurel Lance
Comments: 8
Kudos: 122





	Half An Inch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SuperStitious18](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperStitious18/gifts).



> @SuperStitious18 _coerced_ me into writing this when I shared with them my discovery that Juliana is exactly half an inch taller than Katie and therefore I blame this fic's creation fully on them.
> 
> Thank you to @Starling83 for being a wonderful beta as always ♥
> 
> The first couple scenes are not canon compliant as I couldn't remember how they first met and I couldn't be bothered to look it up but the others should all be canon compliant with a few minor adjustments

1.

Dinah stretches her arms, waiting for Oliver to finish his debrief on Black Siren. With the way he talks about her, it’s not hard to see that he had known this Earth’s version of her — which Dinah is still having trouble wrapping her head around. It’s all the same to her anyway; Black Siren is a criminal, and Dinah is damned good at putting those away. Black Siren won’t be any different, even if Dinah is wearing a mask instead of a badge.

She takes a look at a screen over Felicity’s shoulder, making sure to burn the image of Black Siren into her mind, so she can recognize her anywhere. As she does, her eyes skirt over the mundane information next to her picture. Something about her height catches Dinah’s attention.  _ Five-foot-seven-and-a-half-inches _ . Exactly half an inch shorter than Dinah. She shrugs, putting the information aside and following when Oliver calls for them to suit up.

Dinah’s almost a little disappointed she doesn’t spot Black Siren when they run into her goons. Felicity has assured them that whatever they came here to do isn’t done yet, so surely she cannot be far. She accepts that she seems to be nowhere for now and instead diverts her attention to fighting off her mercenaries for the day. However much she paid for them, they cannot have been worth it as they leave Dinah utterly unimpressed. They’re barely above the usual street raff she dealt with when she was still just an officer.

Blocking an incoming attack, she spots something blonde amongst all the darkness in the corner of her eye. Throwing a quick cry in the direction of her attacker to quickly end their fight, she gives chase, determined to catch up to Siren. She has to round four different corners before she is close enough to discern that it really is her.

“Hey, shortie!” she calls, readying her bo as Black Siren turns around.

“ _ What _ did you just call me?” Siren glares at Dinah, and for the first time that night, there is something akin to excitement growing in Dinah’s stomach.

“Shortie,” Dinah repeats, taking slow, calculated steps towards her. “Y’know, ‘cause you’re so short.”

“I am  _ not _ — Whatever.” Siren pauses for a moment, and it is only because Dinah shares the ability that she realizes what Siren is about to do just before she does it. As Siren lets out her cry, Dinah lets out her own, the two sound waves meeting in the middle. 

They stand there screaming at each other until they both run out of breath, having to take a few seconds to regain it. Dinah glances down at the ground as her breathing slowly returns to normal, but when she looks back up, Siren is nowhere to be found.

Chatter starts up in her ear as Oliver orders them back to the bunker, and Dinah braces herself for the inevitable berating for her running off on her own. Maybe one day Oliver will realize that she was a cop before she was a vigilante.

***

2.

It takes a while for them to meet again. Black Siren mostly stays off their radar, or is somehow miraculously done with her missions right before the team can show up. But tonight, they’ve somehow managed to catch up to her. Dinah is more than ready for a rematch. 

While Oliver is busy on some wild goose chase Prometheus sent him on, and the rest of the boys are busy fighting off whichever mercenaries they hired this time, Dinah finds herself between Siren and the object she is there to steal.

“Isn’t that cute — you like pretending you’re tall,  _ Shortie _ ,” Dinah says, looking up at where Siren is standing on the top of a metal staircase.

“ _ You _ ,” Siren huffs, slowly making her way down the stairs. “Move out of my way and I won’t hurt you. Much.”

“That's a pretty big threat for someone so small.” Siren doesn’t dignify it with an answer — unless the cry Dinah jumps behind a crate to dodge counts. “Huh, it really is true about short people being more temperamental.” Dinah jumps out from behind the crate, this time expecting the cry coming her way. A fight filled with screams, fists, and Dinah’s bo ensues, and Dinah quickly finds herself too focused on keeping up with Siren to continue on her teasing.

Oh well, she is sure there will be more opportunities.

Their fighting stops when Oliver shoots an explosive arrow next to them, no doubt to try to distract Siren. The arrow, however, works better on distracting Dinah, and she lets out a string of curses when the smoke clears and Siren and the object Dinah had been defending are both gone.

***

3.

As time goes on, the teasing continues every time they meet. At one point, Dinah entertains the idea that Siren will never be caught, and their game will continue as long as they’re both up to it. She quickly shakes that thought away, however. She is a cop first, especially now that she’s joined the SCPD.

Their game comes to its conclusion sooner than Dinah expected. At least, she thinks this is the end of it. Because Siren screams into Vince’s ear as Dinah watches, and just like that, all of her jokes die out before they ever get a chance to live. All that consumes her is wanting revenge for Vinny, wanting Siren off this Earth and any other like it, forever. She ignores the fact that Cayden James had given the order, because Cayden James isn’t the person screaming on repeat in Dinah’s mind.

Then Siren betrays Diaz, and suddenly all is supposed to be forgiven. Dinah might have thought it poetic justice when Siren lost someone dear to her as well, if not for how much Quentin had grown on her, despite his lying about Siren. Losing Quentin is something the entire team felt, and Dinah can never look at it as justice.

And then, Dinah has to get used to her. Because  _ Laurel _ becomes the new DA, and suddenly they’re having to interact with each other on a weekly basis. It helps, at least, to think of her as Laurel Lance, DA of Star City, rather than Black Siren, villain from Earth 2. She knows that underneath it all there is still the same person, and she sometimes wonders if Siren is just waiting for the right moment to strike, but for now she is Laurel, and on Dinah’s list of people she has to tolerate because of her job.

...And people she has to be annoyed at for ditching their SCPD appointed protective detail. Deciding that sending another team of officers who could be doing something more productive than getting sick from “food poisoning” won’t cut it, Dinah resigns herself to her fate and drives over to City Hall.

Laurel is about as insufferable about it as Dinah has come to expect. But Dinah has never been one to give in easily, and if Laurel wants to play difficult, Dinah can do so too. Which is how she finds herself sitting in a chair in Laurel’s office, skimming through a magazine as she hears Laurel utter the words, “You might as well make yourself useful while you’re here and go get me a coffee. Two sugars, no cream.”

She is about to give her a deadpan, “Never going to happen,” but changes her mind at the last second. Unable to stop the words from rolling off her tongue, she instead says, “What’s the matter? Is the coffee machine too high up for you?”

Dinah  _ feels _ the icy glare sent at her before looking over the top of her magazine to confirm it, but more than that, she sees the corner of Laurel’s mouth quirk up just an inch. She hates how good it feels, both falling into old habits and being the reason for the tiniest of smiles on Laurel’s lips. Making Laurel feel better is the last thing she should care about.

“Did you not notice me being taller than you on our way in?” Laurel asks, a hint of pride to her voice.

Dinah arches an eyebrow, looking pointedly down where Laurel’s Dinah-doesn’t-even-know-how-many-inches heels are hidden behind Laurel’s desk. She sighs. “If you don’t come with your own height, store-bought is fine, I guess.”

Laurel’s nostrils flare, but a second later she calms herself down again, smoothing out her expression. “At least stop distracting me if you have to make yourself at home in  _ my _ office.”

“Oh, I distract you, do I?” Dinah doesn’t quite know where the question comes from, or where she wants it to go. She is thankful when all she gets is one last glare before Laurel goes back to work, pretending Dinah isn’t even there. Which works just fine for Dinah.

***




The teasing slowly becomes more familiar again, but Dinah does it much more sparingly than before. She is still unable to shake her doubts about Laurel, the knowledge biting at her, telling her that underneath it all, Siren lies waiting. The person who killed her lover hasn’t gone away.

Which is why it comes as no surprise to her when things inevitably go bad and Laurel goes back to being Siren. Dinah’s focus shifts, and all their progress vanishes as she returns to having only one goal: taking Black Siren down. Even if Felicity believes she can be saved, so much so that she calls in this Earth’s Laurel’s sister to help. There is no helping her.

And yet, when confronted by Siren in that warehouse,  _ Laurel _ flashes across her mind. The Laurel who got Oliver out of prison, who rose up and told a room full of people that there is nothing harder than being a hero when no one expects you to be one. Dinah can’t shake how, in that moment, she believed that Laurel truly tried to change, to be better.

So when Felicity, in all her dubious  _ belief _ in Laurel, stands before her and challenges Siren to kill her, Dinah joins her. “And me,  _ Shortie _ ,” she says, looking directly into Siren’s face, searching for the woman she knows is hiding underneath. She finds Laurel staring back at them, disbelief written all over her face.

Dinah holds her breath as she hears Shadow Thief appear behind them. Something swells in her heart when Laurel steps past them, letting out a cry in Shadow Thief’s direction. 

When they’re back in the bunker and all is said and done, Dinah finally finds herself letting go of everything from their past. Looking at Laurel,  _ Laurel  _ is all she sees, and Siren is but a distant bad memory. She cannot help but roll her eyes when Laurel steals Felicity’s champagne glass, fondness blossoming inside her chest.

“I thought short people were supposed to have  _ less _ alcohol,” Dinah remarks, taking a generous sip from her own glass.

“Careful, or I’ll decide I deserve your glass too,” Laurel says, but the threat gets lost behind the smile on her lips. Dinah can’t help but be hit by how beautiful she is like this, with the burden of Siren gone from her shoulders. Which is the worst timing ever for Dinah to think that — Laurel will be leaving any moment now, to go back to her own Earth. Dinah doesn’t even know if she’ll ever see her again, now that she has found she  _ wants _ Laurel in her life.

Dinah is about to think of a reply when her phone vibrates with a message from the SCPD and Felicity calls her over. She will have to think of something, before she is forced to say goodbye.

5.

It doesn’t take all that long, in the grand scheme of things, for Laurel to be in her life again. Of course, it is all rather overshadowed by the Monitor shuffling them around like pieces on a board and the threat of the entire multiverse dying. And so, the moments for teasing are few and far between. And then comes the time for mourning, and then, when Dinah expects to wake up to a world with her friends in it, she wakes up twenty years in the future instead. A future where no one even knows her name.

She does the only feasible thing to do in such a situation, really — she opens a bar. It is nice, something she truly enjoys, but she cannot deny she misses her life as a cop and vigilante, or the people she had that life with. Still, if the universe wanted that life for her, it wouldn’t have given her this.

And then, all of a sudden, Laurel is  _ there _ , standing in the middle of her bar, watching her sing. Dinah can’t help the next words out of her mouth, can’t help the way the words she knows shape into the words she feels. It takes them a while, after a bit of back and forth and teasing, lots of teasing that had to be caught up on. But in the end, they finally go for it, and Dinah gets what she wanted what feels like so long ago now, when Laurel made the decision to leave.

Which is how she finds herself getting out of bed to the sight of Laurel standing in  _ their _ kitchen, in  _ their _ apartment. The bar still belongs solely to Dinah, but maybe, if Laurel plays her cards right, she can get a small piece of that too. She’s already stolen Dinah’s heart, everything else seems so small in comparison.

“Good morning,” Laurel says with a smile, catching Dinah staring at her.

“Good morning.” Dinah returns the smile, taking long, unhurried steps to close the distance between them. Upon reaching her, she wraps her hands around Laurel’s neck and pulls her in, greeting her properly in the faint morning light with a kiss. “I smell coffee,” she says with a sigh as they part, noting their half an inch difference in height, discernible for once with Laurel being barefooted.

“It’s just about done. I was going to get the cups when I spotted you.” Laurel gives her one more kiss, and Dinah finds herself smiling into it.

“Let me grab them,” Dinah says, backing up towards the cupboards. Smirking, she adds, “They’re probably too high up for you.”

“Oh,  _ you _ ,” Laurel says, glaring dangerously at her.

“I what?” Dinah asks innocently, walking over to her with two cups in her hands.

Instead of answering her, Laurel waits until Dinah is close enough to reach. Dinah laughs when arms wrap around her waist, pulling her closer, and she just barely has the mind to put the cups down on the counter before Laurel presses her against it. When Laurel’s lips press against hers hungrily, she knows the coffee will go cold long before she gets a chance to drink it, but she can’t quite find it in herself to care when Laurel is kissing her  _ like that _ .

***

+1.

Life with Laurel is better than Dinah could have ever imagined. It’s hard to believe where they started, the history long put to rest. But no matter what lies in their past, Dinah couldn’t be happier that Laurel wound her way into her heart.

As much as she likes being a vigilante, she is especially grateful for moments like this, with the two of them on their couch, Laurel’s head in her lap and an open bottle Laurel snuck up from downstairs on the table. Dinah runs her hand through Laurel’s hair, marveling at the shortness of it. She cannot help but feel it was the final act of putting Siren to rest, to truly set herself free and become the person who was always hiding inside of her.

Dinah looks at the drink on the table, and as reluctant as she is to let go of Laurel’s hair, her throat screams for something running down it. Alcohol might not be exactly what it has in mind, but is definitely what  _ Dinah  _ has in mind. She reaches for the bottle to pour herself a glass, and Laurel makes a small, adorable sound of protest that Dinah is sure she will deny later.

Looking at the bottle, Dinah’s brow creases before a smirk paints her lips. “This is one of the top shelf bottles…” she starts, but before she can finish her thought, Laurel is sitting on her knees next to Dinah, looking between her and the bottle.

“It sure is,” Laurel says, brushing Dinah’s fingers as she wraps her hand around the bottle. “And I got it all by  _ myself _ .” Laurel pulls the bottle to her, and Dinah lets go of her hold on it, unable to do anything but stare as Laurel brings it to her lips, throwing her head back as she takes a swig from it. Dinah doesn’t even know what she was going to say when the bottle is put back on the table and Laurel climbs onto her lap. “Want to see what else I can do?”

_ Yes. _ Dinah doesn’t have time to give a verbal answer, her tongue too busy tasting her expensive alcohol as Laurel kisses her. Laurel’s fingers bury themselves in Dinah’s hair as Dinah wraps her arms around her girlfriend. As Laurel breaks the kiss only to drag her lips down Dinah’s throat, Dinah knows that if anyone gave her the choice to go back to a time before she was discovered, so many years ago, when Sonus found out who she really was, and all the bad things in the past few years could be erased, she would decline it in a heartbeat. Nothing can make her give up her life with Laurel, perfect in its own right.


End file.
